Walmart: a surprising example of Delighting the Customer

We all know Walmart has a bad reputation for quality and customer service. But last week I had a surprisingly good experience. In fact, it wasn't good, it was excellent.

I ordered some oatmeal and other groceries at Walmart.ca. The estimate delivery date was 1 week from the day of my order. They usually take about 4 days, so I was slightly dissatisfied by the longer estimate.

The morning after my purchase, I realised that I would run out of oatmeal before my purchase from Walmart arrived. I was a bit disappointed that I'd be without my oatmeal for a few breakfasts.

Of course I soon got over it and went about with my day.

A few hours later, the postman knocked on my door with the Walmart package. I could not believe it. The package had arrived at my home one day after I made the online purchase!!!

I was very pleasantly surprised. It felt as if Walmart had read my mind and made sure I had my supply of oatmeal.

I have rarely been that delighted as a customer. And the fact that it came from Walmart made it even more pleasantly surprising.


Was that a coincidence? Divine intervention? Or is Walmart really changing? I like to think it's a little bit of each.

Either way: great job, Walmart!

ZipLoc SpaceBag: an example of how to delight the customer

The story:

I had one of those vacuum bags (also called Space Bag) in my storage unit, with some cushions in it. 

One day I was getting something from storage and noticed that the cushions were inflated. I took the bag out and wondered if they had gotten ripped by some chicken wire that was a bit too close to the bag.

I brought the bag upstairs and took a good look at it. I couldn't find any holes. 

Then I tried to vacuum the air out a few times. After a few hours, the bag would be inflated again. My suspicions were confirmed: there was a leak. 

After some more searching, I found the leak.

I tried fixing it myself, and even following some people's advice on the internet: using packing tape, duck tape, etc.

Nothing worked. The air would still come in after a few hours.

So I had the brilliant idea of calling the company and asking them what to do.

The customer experience:

I called customer service and my call was quickly connected to an agent.

I had barely started telling the person on the other side of the line that there was a leak on the bag, when she responded "I am so sorry that you experienced this. We would like to send you a refund so that you can buy a new bag."

I was very pleasantly surprised!

I had called to ask how to fix the leak and instead they gave me a brand new bag. 

I got much more than what I had asked for.

That is a great example of outstanding customer service. 

Congratulations Space Bag for your great job on delighting the customer!

Passbrains: an example of Excellence

 

As I have mentioned in my other blog, one of the things life has taught me is that no matter how hard we try we always make mistakes. What matters is how you recover from them.

What you do about the mistakes you make, shows your character. In my opinion, companies and individuals who readily admit their mistakes, move on and work to prevent it from happening again, are cultivating a good reputation for themselves. As author Leslie Gaines-Ross says "the steps [to recovering from mistakes] cannot be ignored".

Moreover, I believe that even the small details can make a difference in a company's image. For example, whenever I see a typo on a label, I already think less of the company who made the product.

A few days ago I was blessed with a great example of a company working to protect their reputation, even in the smallest way:

"As you might have noticed, the latest passbrains newsletter published few hours back had some quality issues and it did not even display your name correctly in the welcome note. This happened due to a technical glitch in the tool we are using. Please accept our apologies for this occurrence."

I was amazed at Passbrains' perfectionism. Nowadays, most companies wouldn't even bother apologizing for a mistake in their newsletter. Maybe Passbrains did it because the company is naturally focused on quality (for those who don't know, Passbrains is a crowd-sourced software testing services provider).

For me, the attitude displayed by Passbrains demonstrates that they are "walking the talk". They are being consistent with their business purpose. They are showing me that they strive for excellence in everything they do.

As a customer, I wish other companies would follow Passbrains' example.